Wednesday, September 6, 2017

DACA - Why Ending the Executive Order is Good, and Why the LP Completely Blew It

Trump's recent executive order to repeal "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" has been making the news lately, with much heated debate between both Democrats and Republicans.

The Libertarian Party recently announced that it was denouncing the end of DACA, completely missing the mark and making themselves look like fools to much of their own party.

Quite honestly, the national party completely blew it. This could have been our time to shine, to point out how flawed the two-party system truly is, and how dangerous legislation through executive mandate can be, that one administration's policies can simply be undone with the stroke of a pen by the next administration, and that without following the process of turning a bill into law, that these executive orders are counter-productive to the welfare of our great nation.

Executive orders are the most removed from representation possible. There's a reason our laws are supposed to be approved by both the House and Senate - to ensure equal representation. Unilaterally implementing an executive order to change the immigration system does not present fair and equal representation of the people.

Our immigration system is very broken, and any executive order such as DACA is just a temporary, short-term fix, which can be easily undone as we've seen in these past few days. We must press Congress to permanently fix our immigration system through legislation. By ending the DACA executive order, congress must now act.

If this was a sudden, abrupt end to DACA, then the LP's article would be much more appropriate. It isn't. This is a 6-month phase-out, giving congress plenty of time to push through legislation to reform our broken immigration system and fix things permanently. Instead, the LP went with the kneejerk "sky is falling" reaction.

In a time when the country is so divided, and every reaction to government actions so polarized, the Libertarian Party could shine as the voice of calm and reason.

But just like when the LP Vice Chair called service members moralless murderers, the national party seems completely out of touch with its members.